September 21, 2013 marked the day when open source advocates, sharing the same passion, made a difference. It was the much awaited IT event of the year – the “Software Freedom Day 2013″. Held in beautiful capital of Aklan province, Kalibo, and attended by more than 1000 students, faculty members, SMEs, LGU and chamber representatives, the power of FOSS unfolded before these audiences with a blast. Spearheaded by 8Layer Technology’s CEO, Mr. Meric Mara, an open source advocate himself, together with other speakers, volunteers and team SFD.PH traveled 458 km from Manila to embark on the mission of imparting talents and skills to the Aklanons and be a responsible medium for community improvement.

Students and coordinators from four different schools, namely Aklan Catholic College (ACC), STI College – Kalibo (STI), Numansia Intergrated School (NIS) and Northwestern Visayan Colleges (NVC) and SMEs gathered together at Ati-atihan Hostel simultaneously celebrated the event with some speakers moving from one venue to the other. Each venue had its own set of topics, raffle prizes and programmes.

The Preparation

SFD.PH is a team! And as such, they were able to accomplish their tasks to bring the best SFD celebration to date. Undaunted by all the challenges, hardships and difficulties brought by the distance of the event venue during the preparation, team SFD.PH still was able to build the spirit of camaraderie and had fun along the way. These special moments and journey will always be meaningful to team SFD.PH.

The New SFD song

The advocates’ love for open source knows no bounds. Not only were these advocates a bunch of technical geeks but they are also musically-inclined with talents on composing and writing songs. A new SFD song was created to showcase the creativity and excitement of the team for the event. What better way to celebrate the day of sharing than through music and song! The lyrics and melody would surely perked up one’s mood.

Inspite of some technical problems due to power shortage in the venues, the event went on uninterrupted and ended successfully.

@Ati-atihan Hostel – SMEs

The event started early in the morning with Ms. Megs Lunn, executive director of PCCI as the emcee. The first speaker, Josh Pendejito, Business Channel Manager of Intel Phils. introduced the evolution and the latest trend of microprocessors that captivated the audience’s attention with his upbeat mood. This was followed by Atty. Reggie Tongol of UNTV that talked about the Data Privacy and Creative commons. Atty. Reggie had the longest time on stage as the audience got so interested and hooked up on asking legal questions pertaining to patents, ownership and the like. After lunch session was more business related as Mr. Bryan Del Rosario of OBS talked about Sailfin payroll system; Mr. Lawrz Libo-on of POSNet on Benefits of FOSS and Kasosyo Apps Suite; Erwin Galang of OBS on Orange HRIS; Mr. Meric Mara on Raspberry Pi; Mr. Mark Quitoriano on Call Centers; and Mr. Macoy Mejia on Business Intelligence. Raffle items were drawn in between talks to excite the audience. Major raffle items like the EPSON printer went to Ms. Salmy Beltran, owner of Hora-Hopia products and the Starmobile tablet went to Mr. Ragemmel Buncalan, a student from West Visayas State Univ.

Certificates were distributed and a take-home kit that contains KahelOS CD, Open source tools, 1-year Kasosyo voucher, Sailfin Payroll installer, and other freebiew was given to each of the SME attendees.

@APSTA – STI & other school students

Due to the large number of attendees, STI had to find another venue for the event. It was held at APSTA with students from other schools both in high school and college participating too. A slight delay was encountered in the commencement of the event because of the unexpected power shortage.

The first speaker was Josh Pendejito from Intel who talked about what’s on trend with Intel.

Students were mesmerized with his voice and they listened with their full attention. Intel tumblers were given to those who listened and answered his questions correctly. An intermission number followed to entertain the audience. The next speaker, Ms. Eli of 8Layer Technologies, discussed about Social Media. Followed by Dennis Diola who tackled about Geo-Server Maps. And the last speaker, but definitely not the least, was the heart and brain of everything, Mr. Meric Mara who shared his knowledge about Raspberry Pi and KahelOS. Everyone was impressed with his mini gadget as he started his talk with giving a prize to anyone whose cellphone number will appear in his system. It was such an adrenaline rush to everyone.

The event ended with the participants having their group picture taken with the speakers holding the “Software Freedom Day” banner.

@ACC Gym – ACC students

This venue almost got cancelled few days before the event; but as the saying goes, “All’s well that ends well”. Special thanks to Ms. Megs Lunn for helping in the glitches in the organizers.

The first speaker was Mr. Joscel Pendjito of Intel Philippines who tackled the fourth generation intel core and benefits of intel processor. Then, Mr. Renan Mara shared the meaning of FOSS and SFD. The third speaker, Mr. Rhoane Tañada discussed the Kannel Open Source SMS Gateway which got the audience wide-eyed with the live streaming of sending sms. The fourth speaker was Mr. Erwin Galang who talked about the Soundation and Multimedia. Lastly, students and faculties from PUP shared their experience about open source and challenged the students to never stop learning and sharing.

@Numancia Municipal Hall – Numancia and other school students

The venue is an open stadium and with the power shortage, there was technical problems with the sound and visual system – no microphone and projector. But the resourceful speakers assigned there thought of an intuitive way of handling the situation by dividing the audience into two groups, to make sure their voices will be heard.

Just like what happened to the other venues mentioned above, the power shortage did not hinder the advocates in sharing their knowledge on why celebrate Sofware Freedom Day. They tried to share as much as they can without the use of any projector and sound system. Speakers went to the center of the crowd for everyone to hear their voices. They used their personal laptop to show the audience visual images that best explain their topics ranging from Free and Open Source, Raspberry Pi, Intel processors, Php and jQuery; and Asterisk: Open Source Telephony.

The highlight of the event was when one of the speakers, Mr. Macoy Mejia of MDS raffled away a Raspberry Pi and donated another one to NVC Computer Science Organization.

The Boracay Side Trip

What’s a trip to the rich island of Aklan if a visit to the world famous Boracay Beach is not included! Choosing this place to let all the participants to relax and mingle was a perfect idea to end the celebration on a high note, proving that Filipinos know how to have FUN!

The Charity Mission

The SFD celebration was capped off with donating old laptops, PCs from our supportive donors and a starmobile tablet to ALS to promote SFD and Free and Opensource softwares. It’s all part of the plan and through the help of friends and supporters, this mission of giving back to the community was accomplished through and through!

The Sponsors

Team SFD.ph is grateful to all the sponsors of the event. All of these would not be possible without their support. Special acknowledgement to IDSS, Intel, MDS, Comclark, Starmobile, EPSON, Mighty Corp. Other supporters who shared their money, time and talent, we are thankful too.

Building The Community

SFD is a celebration that is filled with an abundance of knowledge to be learned and shared in return.

Knowledge multiplies when it is being shared. SFD is all about sharing, creating awareness and building a community – a community that abounds with talented people willing to impart and share knowledge. With FOSS and a knowlegeable community, the road to technology progress is endless.

“SFD is more than celebration of free and open source software, it is a revolution against walls that blind us from truths we should know”

Team 8liens joins PUP Foundation Day by sharing their “Open Source Telephony” knowledge. Mr. Meric Mara expounded more to the students what Asterisk is and how beneficial it is as a platform. Mara also did a a simple Live DEMO by connecting his laptop and mobile phone on the asterisk system.

8layer Technologies give thanks to PUP and CEMIT for inviting and organizing this seminar.

This Sunday is full of sharing and Free and Open Source Software. Team SFD.PH also guested on DZIQ “Isyu ng bayan” hosted by Mr. Ricky Brosas and Ms.Liza Soriano.

Benefits of Free and Open Software to our kababayan was the main focus of the discussion. Team SFD.PH led by Mr. Meric Mara shared not only the cost savings but also pointed that SME/s & Business Owners can “Try before they buy the software”. There are lots of QUALITY software that can now be downloaded on the internet and everyone has the freedom to choose the software that best fits their needs.

Mr. Macoy Mejia and Mr. Jerico James Milo, both open source advocates, shared other benefits like security,customization and localization that can ONLY be possible on F/OSS.

Team SFD.PH invites everyone in Kalibo, Aklan on September 21 for SFD 2013 to know about the latest in the I.T. World! Brought to you by Team SFD.PH, 8layer Technologies,Inc, AltoCirrusPlus Inc. and PCCI Aklan Chapter.
For more information, log on to www.SFD.PH or like us on facebook (www.facebook.com/my8layer)

Team SFD.PH, led by Mr. Meric Mara together with Open Source Advocates Mr. Macoy Mejia and Jerico James Milo, was invited to “DZIQ Pera’t Kabuhayan” to promote this year’s Open Source Event “Software Freedom Day”. They discussed how free and open source software can help our Kababayan. The event will be held on September 21 in Kalibo, Aklan.

We would like to thank Mr. Jerome Fedrequilla, Ricky Brosas and Atty Ed Dural and the rest of DZIQ Pera’t Kabuhayan staff for the support and for the chance they have given us to share F/OSS benefits.

Team SFD.PH is inviting everyone to this one of a kind event that will bring people together and empower them to connect, create and share in a digital world…freely and responsibly.

MONDAY. We are very busy at work; coding, testing and documenting projects.

Though the sky is dark and it was raining, we still managed to have fun and do our ADMIN/HR program “Getting to know” 8liens activity which are Hu Yu? Y u? and House Tree Person. The activity was lead by our Kamahalan, Ms. Reyna.

We also had talent portion

This is how we do things. When we work, we work hard, when we play, we play harder!

Read and be inspired! Big things are coming up. Happy Monday to everyone!

Nearly everything a leader does hinges on the type of vision he has. If his vision is small, so will be his results and his followers. A high-ranking French official who understood this concept once expressed it thus when addressing Winston Churchill: “If you are doing big things, you attract big men. If you are doing little things, you attract little men. Little men usually cause trouble.” An effective vision attracts winners.

Too often people limit their own potential. They think small. They are afraid of risk. People no longer willing to stretch are no longer able to grow. As author Henry Drummond says, “Unless a man undertakes more than possibly can do, he will never do all he can do.”

Team 8liens has been invited to Super Entrepinoy DZEC 1062 Radio Program last Saturday, June 15, 201. Our Chief Architect Meric Mara and QA Architect Ms. Rosa Tsang shared the benefits of Kasosyo App Suite to entrepreneurs with the program’s avid listeners. It was a great experience for team 8liens to showcase one of their newest products in the market. To show gratitude, Kasosyo App Suite is open to entrepreneurs who want to try the app for free for 3 months. Team 8liens will surely be back to DZEC for more great products, knowledge and information to be shared to the public.

To try out Kasosyo for free, please call 400-1905 or email your company information at info@8layertech.com

It’s National ICT Month once again! In line with the month long celebration, the DOST held its DOST-ICTO Solutions Fair from June 10 to 14 at the ICTO building which was attended by iGov agencies’ employees and participated by different IT companies. 8Layer is among one of the participants both in the exhibit at the fair and the series of tech talks being conducted.

Our very own CEO, Mr. Meric Mara was the first speaker sharing about the latest offering of 8Layer – CLIX: a robust yet simple solution to large and complex data and multimedia management. Mr. Mara eagerly shared how CLIX can make our lives easier by incorporating all the features needed such as rich GUI, built-in metadata support, quick file and tag search, just to name a few. He also explained how much savings in terms of bandwidth, upload time and the unwanted downtime are done in the long run by having an efficient storage system like CLIX.

The talk ended with a warm applause from the impressed and satisfied audience. They even rushed to 8Layer’s booth for the CLIX flyer.

June 8, 2013 – another informative Saturday morning for listeners of Vigattin Radio at DZIQ as Rosa Tsang and Eli Natividad of 8Layer Technologies, Inc. and Macoy Mejia of MDS Call Solutions shared their knowledge and stories about Open Source with anchor Denevin Macaranas and Prof. Arne Barcelona from UST College of Engineering.

It was indeed an enriching discussion as topics on advantages of Open Source over Closed Source/Proprietary; how Open Source may help prevent piracy issues; how open source may promote collaboration and participation among community members to work towards a better software; and why Open Source is still not patronized by educational institutions and the general public in the Philippines were tackled.

To cap off the 1-hour interview, listeners were invited to join the upcoming Software Freedom Day on Sept. 21 to be held at Boracay Island for more topics about open source and to be more aware with FOSS.